The Daughter Also Rises

In her debut novel Swallowing the Sun, Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri has crafted a historical narrative about her protagonist, Malati, forging her own identity

- Aditya Mani Jha

SWALLOWING THE SUN A Novel

by Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri

ALEPH BOOK COMPANY

₹899; 424 pages

Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri's debut novel Swallowing the Sun begins with its young protagonist, Malati, negotiating that quintessential childhood quagmire standing up to a schoolyard bully. In Malati's case, it's an arrogant boy who does not believe girls can ever be his equals. Malati ends up wrestling him, inflicting an embarrassing defeat using superior tactics. This is the first of many occasions across the novel where Malati challenges the gendered status quo in her immediate environs.